The Imperial Coronation Egg is a jewelled Easter egg made in 1897 by the workshop of Peter Carl Faberge, crafted under the workmaster Michael Perkhin in gold covered with translucent lime-yellow enamel over a guilloche ground, banded with laurel leaves in green gold set with diamond-studded double-headed eagles. Tsar Nicholas II presented it to his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, to commemorate their coronation of May 1896, and the egg opens to reveal a precise miniature replica of the eighteenth-century imperial coach that carried the Tsarina to the ceremony, its design echoing the gold and yellow of her coronation robes. It is held today in the Faberge Museum in Saint Petersburg, owned since 2004 by the Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, and is regarded as one of the most elaborate of the Imperial series of Faberge eggs made for the Russian court.
Facts
Year Created Current UsePrivately owned (Viktor Vekselberg collection); frequently exhibited on loan at museums worldwide, including the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 1 Visitor AccessNot on permanent public display; occasionally viewable in temporary museum exhibitions 1 Connections
In Form
Faberge jeweled Easter egg.
In Movement
Faberge's Imperial Easter eggs are canonical examples of Russian Art Nouveau jeweled decorative art.
Sources
1. Imperial Coronation Egg (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia, Imperial Coronation (Faberge egg), opening sentence
The Imperial Coronation egg is a jewelled Fabergé egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller, Peter Carl Fabergé, in 1897 by Fabergé ateliers, Mikhail Perkhin and Henrik Wigstrom.
Wikipedia, Imperial Coronation (Faberge egg), second paragraph
It was frequently on exhibition at The Hermitage Museum (specifically the Winter Palace) in St. Petersburg, Russia, and also materialised in various museums worldwide, placed in temporary exhibits there. It is currently owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch.
- Wikipedia article: work classified by its own real-world art form
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